Glass Etch vinyl problem, advice?

[Gary Birch]

Brian
Do it dry mate. I would also wait till any dust from others is cleaned up otherwise the static is just gonna pull it in.

Dry will be so much easier and quicker than wet. If not sure you could always get some of bubble free etch.

Cheers

Gary

[Brian Little]

Thanks gary Mate your probally right i find sometimes on this scale water causes more problems than it solves….ive not been asked to take it off but my conscious is bothering me ..it just aint right

[Jill Marie Welsh]

You should really be using Rapid Tac 2 if doing a wet app on glass.
http://www.rapidtac.com/
It’s worth the money, no wasted materials or fubars.
Love….Jill

[Gary Birch]

quote Brian Little:

Thanks gary Mate your probally right i find sometimes on this scale water causes more problems than it solves….ive not been asked to take it off but my conscious is bothering me ..it just aint right

Yeah I know what you mean mate. It may be fine after a few days though.

Cheers

Gary

[Brian Little]

quote Jillbeans:

You should really be using Rapid Tac 2 if doing a wet app on glass.
http://www.rapidtac.com/
It’s worth the money, no wasted materials or fubars.
Love….Jill

hmm never heard of that Jill ….hmmm wonder if theres a uk supplier ta 😀

[Adrian Neill]

quote Gary Birch:

Dry will be so much easier and quicker than wet. If not sure you could always get some of bubble free etch.

Gary

Bubble free etch ???? ………..

[Gary Birch]

Yeah, I haven’t used it but I am pretty sure both Allprint supplies and Dorotape do one.

Cheers

Gary

[Brian Little]

it was oracle etch …just thought id add that

[Neil Davey]

quote Brian Little:

quote Jillbeans:

You should really be using Rapid Tac 2 if doing a wet app on glass.
http://www.rapidtac.com/
It’s worth the money, no wasted materials or fubars.
Love….Jill

hmm never heard of that Jill ….hmmm wonder if theres a uk supplier ta 😀

Try here Brian…….http://www.allprint.co.uk/ancilliary_pr … spx?id=182

[Chris Windebank]

All print do Rapid tac 2.
Spandex do bubble free vinyl.
You can do this wet on normal frost and I find it best when doing large areas, either use rapid tac or 1 litre of water with one drop of johnsons baby shampoo
Most on here say do it dry, far easier to do wet in my opinion, try it both ways to see what suits you, and as for being quicker dry you guys must be doing it wrong

[Brian Little]

quote Chris Windebank:

All print do Rapid tac 2.
Spandex do bubble free vinyl.
You can do this wet on normal frost and I find it best when doing large areas, either use rapid tac or 1 litre of water with one drop of johnsons baby shampoo
Most on here say do it dry, far easier to do wet in my opinion, try it both ways to see what suits you, and as for being quicker dry you guys must be doing it wrong

cheers chris had a look at that papid tac on there site ….i just want to get it right

[Chris Windebank]

use the right tools and you will be super fast.
Use the toolbar to locate window film suppliers, get yourself a unger handle and blade (like used for cleaning windows) You can get harder blades for window films and use softer for frost.

[Alan Drury]

I would have done it wet and last windows I did 2 weeks ago I did wet. I used Hexis frost film with APA’s aplication fluid and I was surprised how well it went. My experience with other films and just water had not been so good. I’d have been b]very nervous doing this dry.
Alan D

[Martin Pearson]

Brian, you could always get someone to teach you how to apply vinyl properly, I know someone who lives quite close to you who would be prepared to give you a few lessons.

[Brian Little]

quote Martin:

Brian, you could always get someone to teach you how to apply vinyl properly, I know someone who lives quite close to you who would be prepared to give you a few lessons.

hmm thanks martin …to be honest ive done allthe glass stuff in the restaurant without a hitch it all went well i think its jst the size of these thats the problem … but hey keep your phone on i wouldnt rull out a call 😀

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Remember to get the Rapid Tac 2 for glass or if it’s really cold outside & you have to do a wet app, it sets up faster than regular Rapid Tac.
But doesn’t smell as pretty.

[Brian Little]

quote Jillbeans:

Remember to get the Rapid Tac 2 for glass or if it’s really cold outside & you have to do a wet app, it sets up faster than regular Rapid Tac.
But doesn’t smell as pretty.

yip jill ive been checking out the stuff on you tube ..thanks x

[Phill Fenton]

Reading your description of how you applied it – it sounds to me like you wet the glass screen, but when you came to apply the vinyl itself the glue side would be still dry (as you removed the paper as you worked your way down)?

It seems to me that this may be the problem. The screen is wet – but the vinyl itself was dry when applying? If so you may have been left with dry areas and wet areas when you tried to squeegee it out. The areas that are wet would have allowed the fluid to escape – but any dry areas would have trapped the air. I would either apply it all wet (i.e wet screen and wet vinyl) or all dry (dry screen and dry vinyl). If I am understanding you correctly you are attempting a halfway house which may be the cause of the problem.

When simply flood coating, doing it wet should be really easy. If the design has a pattern cut out, then you will find it difficult to get the application paper off until it has dried out properly (In which case leave it on 24 hours then return to remove the tape).

Is this the Restaurant with the LED sign by the way?

[Brian Little]

quote Phill:

Reading your description of how you applied it – it sounds to me like you wet the glass screen, but when you came to apply the vinyl itself the glue side would be still dry (as you removed the paper as you worked your way down)?

It seems to me that this may be the problem. The screen is wet – but the vinyl itself was dry when applying? If so you may have been left with dry areas and wet areas when you tried to squeegee it out. The areas that are wet would have allowed the fluid to escape – but any dry areas would have trapped the air. I would either apply it all wet (i.e wet screen and wet vinyl) or all dry (dry screen and dry vinyl). If I am understanding you correctly you are attempting a halfway house which may be the cause of the problem.

When simply flood coating, doing it wet should be really easy. If the design has a pattern cut out, then you will find it difficult to get the application paper off until it has dried out properly (In which case leave it on 24 hours then return to remove the tape).

Is this the Restaurant with the LED sign by the way?

sent you an email mate

[Tim Hobbs]

Hi Brian

Is there a design cut out of your etch panels? Or just panels themselves?
I know this debate rages on but I fit wet with etch and dry with absolutely everything else.
With large panels of etch I would take the backing paper off completely, either on a pasting table or on the window itself by first saturating the window and putting the panel on vinyl side against the glass, you will find that the water will have enough pull to hold it whilst you remove the silicon paper. On large pieces I always have a working partner. I then saturate the glass itself and literally float the etch on, loads of water with baby shampoo for me!

That’s with etch panels only.

With etch panels with designs cut out I always make sure that I use a low-tack application tape. Then I again fit wet but with rapidtac and a lot less of it.
I do not weed the design out until it is on the window, that way I can get all the rapidtac/bubbles out.

I am in awe of those that can fit this stuff dry and would love to see someone do it with a large panel with a lot of text out. (perhaps Rob could do a video!!!!) I can’t deny that it would be quicker but I just make sure that I factor in the extra time within the price. Personally though I think that the end result is the goal so it doesn’t matter how you get there.
I’ve fitted a hell of a lot of the stuff with very few failures.

I like Metamark 7 series, didn’t get on with Oracal.

Tim

:lol1:

[Brian Little]

quote Tim Hobbs:

Hi Brian

Is there a design cut out of your etch panels? Or just panels themselves?
I know this debate rages on but I fit wet with etch and dry with absolutely everything else.
With large panels of etch I would take the backing paper off completely, either on a pasting table or on the window itself by first saturating the window and putting the panel on vinyl side against the glass, you will find that the water will have enough pull to hold it whilst you remove the silicon paper. On large pieces I always have a working partner. I then saturate the glass itself and literally float the etch on, loads of water with baby shampoo for me!

That’s with etch panels only.

With etch panels with designs cut out I always make sure that I use a low-tack application tape. Then I again fit wet but with rapidtac and a lot less of it.
I do not weed the design out until it is on the window, that way I can get all the rapidtac/bubbles out.

I am in awe of those that can fit this stuff dry and would love to see someone do it with a large panel with a lot of text out. (perhaps Rob could do a video!!!!) I can’t deny that it would be quicker but I just make sure that I factor in the extra time within the price. Personally though I think that the end result is the goal so it doesn’t matter how you get there.
I’ve fitted a hell of a lot of the stuff with very few failures.

I like Metamark 7 series, didn’t get on with Oracal.

Tim

:lol1:

😀 😀

Cheers tim never thought of that using the glass as "the table " and then just turning it over. I was speaking to Phill this morning (mentor sign god 😀 ) and he said to wait a week see if it drys out which i will do .There has been no complaints from the customer so perhaps i should just shut my gob 😀 As far as putting etch glass that size on dry …i too would love to see it

thanks mate

[Chris Windebank]

Hi Brian, Tim is correct in using the window as a table. If you clean all windows first never a problem and you can do single handed this way.
Another thing to think about is the longer it is on the harder it is to get off!

[Jill Marie Welsh]

After applying wet I also spray the transfer tape with app fluid or even Windex, squeegee, then the tape comes right off.
Not saying to use Windex for app fluid!

(I agree if it is a big plain panel you need no transfer tape and I always float those on wet using RT2)

[Tim Hobbs]

Yeah, forgot that
Haven’t tried it with Windez though Jill.
Every day’s a schoolday!

[DaneRead]

we did a lot of etch film at a building the other day. we originally cut the vinyl in little horizontal strips so we opted for the mactac JT5798MBF which is their printable bubble free glass etch film. We applied dry with app paper and all went well. There were some sections that required solid coverage. Obviously i would have opted for a normal crystal glass or frosted glass film but we had to match up to the bubble free.

We first tried the large panels dry. 2mt x 1.26mt and we had real hassles because the water seemed to get trapped in sections and it ended up looking all blotchy. very horrible. We ended up finding that dry was the best method but it was very difficult. We used a felt block squeegee and just did it slowly. The major problem was that if the film creased as we were rolling it up to pull the backing paper away or if we needed to lift up slightly then the crease would leave a horrible white mark on the film. Very difficult to work with. I also find that if you look closely at the bubble free frosted you still see the spots of the adhesive. I really believe that bubble free isnt a good technology for etch film rather stick with a normal adhesive.